TOKYO-Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to invest an additional $300 million in the top Philippine wireless carrier, Philippine Long Distance Telephone, according to a public statement by President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines.
During a nationally televised roundtable with her economic advisers, Arroyo relayed that Manuel Pangilinan, head of PLDT, had personally told her of the coming investment, according to Philippine news station iGMA. No further details were immediately available.
A DoCoMo spokeswoman in Washington, D.C, Karen Lurker, said the company had no comment on the news reports. She said DoCoMo’s offices in Japan are still closed for the New Year holidays and the information could not be confirmed. Representatives from PLDT were not immediately available to comment on the issue.
PLDT’s wireless phone unit, Smart Communications Inc., recently obtained a mobile 3G license from the Philippines’ National Telecommunications Commission. NTT Communications Corp., parent company of NTT DoCoMo, already has a 14.7-percent stake in PLDT.
